How to Choose an Upholstery Fabric

By Beth Larson,

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Reupholstering an old piece of furniture is a great way to update it and help it to match with your decor. One of the most fun parts of upholstering is choosing the fabric. There are many different types of upholstery fabrics available to choose from. Here the benefits and downsides of some of the most popular upholstery fabrics to help make your decision easier and to be sure that you get a fabric that is perfect for your room.

Leather
Although leather is more expensive than other types of upholstery fabric it is extremely durable and can last for years. It also brings a certain elegance to a piece of furniture and helps it to look upscale and classic. Leather is one of the most popular choices in upholstery fabric because of its durability and simply because it looks beautiful.

Vinyl
Although vinyl upholstery fabric may seem like a good alternative to leather, it actually can be quite uncomfortable to sit on. Not only that but over time it has a tendency to crack as it ages which means it won't last nearly as long as many other types of upholstery fabric. The main benefit of choosing vinyl for your upholstery fabric is that it is easy to clean; however the uncomfortable texture and relatively short lifetime should be considered before choosing vinyl for your furniture.

Linen
Linen is probably not the best choice for upholstery fabric for most people. Linen wrinkles easily and also takes a lot of care to help keep it clean. The fibers in linen can have a tendency to stretch which means it will also require extra care to help keep its shape. When it comes to upholstery fabric there are much better choices than linen.

Denim or Heavy Cotton Fabric
Denim or heavy cotton fabrics are a great choice for upholstering a piece of furniture. Cotton fibers are durable and tough and stand up well to most types of cleaning solutions and to every day wear and tear. Look for cotton fabric or denim that is color fast for ease of cleaning. After you've upholstered the furniture consider treating the fabric with a stain resistant spray to help protect it.

Upholstery Cleaning

Welcome to our site where we cover all things regarding upholstery and upholstery cleaning that let you know what to do and what not to do.

Upholstery Cleaning

Most people don’t realize how many things they purchase that contain upholstery. The most obvious items include furniture and cars, but upholstery is also common in office settings, bags and other merchandise.

The first step to upholstery cleaning occurs before you have any upholstery to clean. Yes, I am talking about understanding what you are buying. Some upholstery is easier to clean when compared to other types. When evaluating items for purchase, it vital you know what type of cleaning obligation you are buying into and we provide you with that information.

Once you buy a car, couch or so on, you are going to be faced with cleaning it at some point in time. There are do it yourself options with some upholstery fabrics, but others require the attention of an upholstery cleaning professional. You can find information in our articles section on doing it yourself or find a upholstery cleaning professional near you.

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How to Select Upholstery Fabric

Choose upholstery to suit your lifestyle as well as your decor. Here are some tips about common upholstery fabrics.
Instructions
  1. 1. Consider leather, because - although expensive - it can be a wonderfully rugged choice. It does lack the formality of a damask or brocade.

    2. Think long and hard before going with vinyl. It's tough and easy to wipe off, but may not feel good against skin - it will feel cold in cool rooms and stick to skin in warm rooms. However, polyurethane faux leathers are supposed to have a better feel than polyvinyl chloride faux leathers.

    3. Choose nylon for its resilient, long-lasting properties, and because any stains usually can be removed. For formal rooms, nylon velvet is a surprisingly durable option.

    4. Make cotton a top choice: it's absorbent, feels cool against skin in warm climates and it's just as comfortable in colder climates. Heavier-weight cottons such as canvas and denim wear well, while polished ones such as chintz tend to weaken and split in just a few years.

  2. 5. Forgo linen in many situations. This tough fabric wrinkles easily and tends to feel stiff. It's expensive and needs care when cleaned to hold its color and shape.

    6. Opt for wool in cool climates because it's strong and warm. Its drawbacks are moth problems and potential shrinkage.

    7. Stay open to acrylic blends. They are washable and resilient while deterring shrinkage. Acrylic can lend a woolly appearance without the moth problems; however, pure acrylics tend to pill.

    8. Look to polyester as an attractive choice - it is strong, resistant to wrinkles and it neither stretches nor shrinks. It can pill, but polyester-cotton blends combine the advantages of both of these fabrics.

The Right Steps on How to Clean Upholstery

By: Brian Jones

Cleaning your upholstery can be easy if you do the necessary steps. There are proper steps on how to clean upholstery so you can remove the spilled drink or stains effectively.

1. The first step on how to clean upholstery is removing the large chunks of crust first. The crust can come from different food stains. The right way to remove it is scraping it off using the spoon. You can also use a spatula if the stain is still wet so u can scrape off almost everything. You should be careful that you don’t rub the spatula on the upholstery.

2. The next step on how to clean upholstery is getting the vacuum and using it on the furniture. Then get a brush for dusting to clean the upholstery well. Most vacuums have this accessory. The brush will not work for wet stains so do not do this step anymore. Using the brush will only make the damage worse.

3. The third step on how to clean upholstery is applying a cleaner for upholstery. Most hardware stores sell it however you can also mix your own cleaner. The first thing to do to make your own mixture of cleaner is grabbing a measuring cup and filling one fourth of it with detergent for dishes. The detergent should be the biodegradable kind. Then pour it in a bowl with one cup of lukewarm water and then get the mixer. Beat the mixture with the electric mixer until it becomes very thick that it starts foaming.

4. The fourth step on how to clean upholstery is getting a brush with soft bristles and using it to rub the mixture of cleaner to remove the grime. The dirt will get mixed with the soap’s foams. Then get the spatula and remove the foam with the dirt.

5. The fifth step on how to clean upholstery is wiping the suds away. You can use a damp cloth to rinse it. Make sure that there are no foams left. You can repeat this procedure if you still see some dirty spots. Drying the upholstery is the last step. You can use a fan to speed up the drying process. You have to make sure that it is really dry already or you might get mildew on it. Try these steps on just a single spot on your upholstery before doing it on the entire upholstery.

Please click these links if you want to know more about how to clean upholstery or how to clean upholstery in general.

10 home trends you can bank on in 2010

STACY DOWNS • MCT NEWS SERVICE • JANUARY 3, 2010
Is glamour dying?

At the very least, it's being redefined during an uncertain economy as we approach the next decade.

"There's a change away from the hip modernism we've borrowed from hotels with all the Lucite, mirrored furnishings and bright yellow and turquoise geometric carpets," said interior designer Peter Dunham of Los Angeles, whose client list includes Ben Affleck. "We want comforting things. More American pie, less flash in the pan."

So what exactly is in store - and will be in stores - for our homes in 2010?

"More craft and things that have been touched by hand," said Keith Johnson, buyer-at-large for Anthropologie stores and the subject of the Sundance Channel's "Man Shops Globe." The eight-episode series followed Johnson to South Africa, India and across Europe as he sped through flea markets and met with artisans in search of Holy Grail furnishings and accents.

BLACK ON TRACK

Black walls are turning up in home mags and blogs, much bolder versions of the grays we've grown used to.

"Dark walls actually make smaller rooms look bigger," said Susan Bartlett Crater, granddaughter of Kennedy White House decorator Sister Parish. Crater and Libby Cameron this year wrote the book "Sister Parish Design on Decorating" (St. Martin's Press, $35). "Black also pops color in a sophisticated way."

Patricia Shackelford of Kansas City, author of the nationally recognized design blog "Mrs. Blandings," included a post on world-renowned interior designer and Kansas City native Thomas Britt's black walls of the 1970s. Some of the rooms looked as if they could have been ripped from modern magazines that feature black rooms with crisp white trim and accents.

Designer Peter Dunham is even seeing black in furniture upholstery, such as black Chesterfield sofas. And Edwardian-like black coincides with what's popular in fashion, he says.

TO GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE WE GO

We've heard "this ain't your grandma's ..." A new buzz phrase just might be "that's so granny."

Patricia Shackelford thinks we'll see more patchwork quilts, hooked rugs, needlepoint and chintz.

"On 'Top Design,' a contestant (Ondine Karady) was criticized for being too 'grandma' for using a crocheted throw," Shackelford said. "Actually, she was on to the next trend."

Shackelford said it's the return of Sister Parish design, using heirlooms or pieces with history. "It's a way to bring comfort to formality," she said.

Susan Bartlett Crater said using family pieces can be stylish. "My grandmother always said houses should be receptacles of memories," Crater said. "What better way than using grandmother's things?"

GRAFFITI FURNITURE

Antiques in recent years have become more affordable. But some pieces can be unwanted, drab even, and call for help.

"Antiques don't always have to be these sacred things," Keith Johnson said. "They can be reinterpreted."

When "Man Shops Globe" visited Belgium, Johnson asked an artist to breathe new life into a wooden Louis XV headboard by spray-painting it, graffiti-style.

Graffiti artists have over time earned street cred, and some have gained respect.

MADE IN THE U.S.A.

In 2010 and beyond, a "made in the U.S." label will resonate strongly with buyers, because people want to strengthen the economy. Buying more local items also is better for the environment.

HOMESTEAD CHIC

More of us are growing vegetables, crafting our own cheeses and battling city hall to keep chickens in our backyards. Just as we've been reconnecting with the land, look for that bond to strengthen in the rest of the home. We'll use more locally harvested wood and reclaimed barn wood.

We're becoming fonder of burlap-style grain-sack and rustic linen pillows. The fabrics follow on the heels of the classic rural European look popularized by Belgian designer Axel Vervoordt. He sparingly mixes industrial furniture with worm-holed unstained wooden pieces. Restoration Hardware's latest furniture seems to be directly inspired by Vervoordt, Peter Dunham and Patricia Shackelford say.

FLEA MARKET FRENZY

Many made their first visits to flea markets and thrift stores in 2009, a trend that will get even bigger in the new year.

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A recent visit to the Salvation Army store turned up 48-cent pieces of classic creamy Ironstone dishware.

"People aren't doing the full-scale bathroom and kitchen re-dos they were a few years ago," Dunham said. "But they can easily perk up a room with textiles or a new lamp."

"Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found: Unconventional Design From Cast-Offs" by Linda and John Meyers (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $27.50) features how-to ideas for Aunt Millie's stuff and thrift-store finds.

INNOVATIVE RECYCLING

In an episode of "Man Shops Globe" in which Keith Johnson travels to South Africa, he talks about how recycled items will be purchased only if they are beautiful. On a visit to a store called Magpie, he fell in love with a chandelier made of Barbie legs and milk-bottle caps. At the end of the show, we learn President Barack Obama commissioned a $4,800 recycled chandelier for his daughters' room at the White House (based on Johnson's recycled find).

DESIGN MAGAZINE EVOLUTION

Two popular design magazines, Domino and Metropolitan Home, published their last issues in 2009. On the upside, 2009 saw the start of a new online-only magazine called Lonny (www.lonnymag.com). We wonder if there will be more.

CONVERGING LIKE CRAZY

We anticipate more design apps (short for applications) for our smart phones.

Sherwin-Williams in 2009 introduced color-matching software for the iPhone. You can take a picture on your phone and match it to a paint color, which is highly useful now that camera phone quality has improved.

LAUGHTER INDUCING

We don't mean talking Jerry Seinfeld bobbleheads, although those would be stellar desk toys. What we do expect to see are more imaginative everyday household items designed to tickle our funny bones.

Keith Johnson recently visited Design Miami, a show that is gaining prominence worldwide, and "Grandfather Clock" got his attention. It's a large wooden piece with a clock face in which a blurry gentleman on a screen keeps passersby up to the minute by erasing the old time with a paper towel and redrawing the current time with a dry-erase marker.

"We need things that make us laugh," Johnson said. "Or at the very least, make us smile."